Coronas del Parnaso y Platos de las musas de Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo

Abstract

This article proposes a study of the dedications in Coronas del Parnaso y Platos de las musas by Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo (Madrid, 1635), to show how the miscellany, the variety of forms and the hybrid nature of this curious work reflect an original aesthetic project which embodies and highlights the relationship between two structures—that of the work and that of the literary field. This mixed work, which includes fables, poems, novel, entremeses, comedies and epistles, far from being a mere juxtaposition, is a product of the author’s promotional designs. This article explains the position occupied by Salas Barbadillo in the structure of that literary field, and the stylistic and political strategies implicit in the work. As a self-conscious literary field, it is visibly reflected in the work, revealing the complex web of relationships linking all the individuals and agents involved in it, and likewise the distinction and the «symbolic capital» that the author sought to achieve through this work.

Keywords

• Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo
• Conde-duque de Olivares
• councils
• literary field
• Parnassus
• patronage